South West Heli Rodeo 2019 – Pics and Videos

November 8 – 10 was the legendary South West Heli Rodeo event in Queens Creek, AZ. This event has been going on for many many years, and has quite the reputation for having good weather towards the end of the season, and CRAZY flying from top pilots!

When I arrived at the event I was shocked at how many RV’s and campers were already on site! Nearly the entire length of the flight line was packed with them, and overall the counted 55 registered pilots!

This year the event was heavily sponsored from companies such as, Scorpion, Mikado USA, Xpert Servos, BK Hobbies, HRB Battery, Only Fine Helis, Amain hobbies, Futaba, and Hobby Wing. Some of the grand prizes included a Vbar Neo from Mikado USA, along with a Full set of KD1 Servos from Xpert Servos!
Also this event drew some pretty great professional pilots such as Scorpion Pilots, Mitch Marozas, Donnie Petche, and Myself. In addition there was Ben Storick who were there to put on a show for attendees and spectators alike!

One of the best moments from this event was the “Sunset Smack” session which we had on Saturday Afternoon just before dark. All of us Pro pilots took our equipment and headed to the flight line and threw down back to back flights trying to entertain the crowd, but more importantly one up each other. Check out some videos here!

As the sun set, then the flood lights came on, and the night flying began! One great idea from this event is how they encourage not only pros, but attendees alike to do night flying. The rule was for every flight that you did under the lights, you got a raffle ticket which entered you into a drawing for an additional prize! So needless to say, the night flying pilot
station was constantly packed as the night went on!

All In all this event was a huge success in my books. The weather was absolutely stunning, day and night, the flying was off the hook, and also I enjoyed just hanging with my friends, and also helping out some fellow modelers with build and setup questions, which is what this hobby is really about!